EXERCISE 1: Revision Exercise

In this exercise you’re going to practice using a combination of a heading, a

pull-quote and body copy in1x different A4 typographic compositions
using a layered or minimal hierarchy.

Here is a guide:

1. Create 2 pages, A4 (297x210mm) each, portrait, non-facing pages, for print,

black and white, in InDesign. Don’t worry about setting the margins and
columns at this point.
2. Start from zero:
o For the body copy, choose an appropriate
o 1. font;
o 2. size (sans serif body text is typically between 7-10pt in size, and
serif body text ranges between 8-11pt in size);
o 3. leading (usually 120-145% of the point size). The leading for
screen text is usually narrower than for print.
o 4. line length (35-70/80 characters per line, generally) for the body
text (test-print).
Finding word and character counts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-jXMYi4nsA
When beginning a project that requires formatting longform text, start
with the body copy. The body copy is the main content of your document.
Starting here allows you to prioritize readability and legibility, which are crucial
for longform content. Decisions about typeface, size, leading, and line length
in the body copy will influence how you approach your column grid, margins,
headings, subheadings, and other elements. The longer the line length, the
smaller the margins – page margins have the biggest influence on the line
length.

3. Create a column grid with (x) number of rows. Go to the bar right at the top of
your InDesign window and to the left > click on layout > click on margins and
columns. Choose a certain number of columns to add and a gutter width:
How do I figure out the gutter width?
o See: Kane, J., 2002. A type primer. Laurence King Publishing
(reading available on SunLearn). He recommends +/- 2 ems of the
text size for the vertical gutter (the space between the columns).
For example, 8pt text = 16 pt gutter. What matters here is that the

VCD 479| 2024

Visual Arts Department, Stellenbosch University 1
 two columns of text are a comfortable width apart. You can even
play with a layout that has three or four columns. For example:

o If you want to add in rows in your grid, go to ‘layout’ at the top right
of your InDesign > click on ‘create guides’ > now you can increase
the number of rows. This is useful for creating hang lines.

4. Add in your baseline grid and set the grid to the leading of your text. Here is a
video on how to do that:
Align your text to the baseline grid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_ZhsAUvLU8. Down the line, you’ll need
to snap your text to the baseline grid (Google this). Don’t shift text by hand.
Also see how you can align just the first line of text to the baseline grid (hint:
Paragraph > hamburger icon...)

5. Add space
Add in all of your other text, in the same size + style, break it into parts and use
alignment and/or indents + spacing to arrange the content. NB! Go to file >
place > chose the word document that you want to import > make sure ‘show
import options’ is ticked > click OK > click import (you will not gloss over these
settings for other long-form documents). You’ll see your curser is charged > go
to the top left corner of your inner margin, hold down shift (this will tell the
programme to thread the text when it’s placed, from one column to the next) >
then click to place text. Always work with your hidden characters visible (Type
> show hidden characters) and your H&J Violations visible (to see H&J
violations go to InDesign on the top left of your screen > go to preferences at
the bottom of the dropdown > composition > tick the box next to H&J
violations.).
6. Play with composition options before choosing one to develop further.
When discussing alignments, we can differentiate between macro alignments
and micro alignments. First, you’ll sketch thumbnails and brainstorming
placements. After you’ve done this, it's often less restrictive to (when working
digitally) to roughly position elements before diving into precise alignments, like

VCD 479| 2024

Visual Arts Department, Stellenbosch University 2
 matching baselines. As you arrange your elements, it can be beneficial to
create two versions of your InDesign document—label one as "Experiment" and
the other as "Final" or whatever system you prefer. In the experimental
document, you can freely shift things around and explore different layouts.
Once you feel that you’ve arrived at something that works, switch to your final
document and shift your focus. At this stage, ask yourself two questions: How
can I achieve exact placements? And how can I institute the changes
automatically? For example, if you're placing an image or text box and want to
align it, use the alignment options in InDesign. Instead of dragging the box to
size, type in the exact dimensions for precision. This approach spring cleans
your layout.
7. Thread your paragraphs of body copy text if you are using more than one
column: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itPVV4OkD4g and add spaces
between paragraphs (usually 4-10 points/ 50-100% of the body text size) OR
add indents to indicate a new paragraph. You only need to use one of these
methods, it’s like wearing a belt OR suspenders to hold up your pants (never
both). Another option for separating paragraphs is using symbols. If you are
using a first-line indent, it should be larger than the size of body text (between 1
- 4ems). To indent a paragraph, use the indent option. Don’t use word spaces
or tabs. Here’s how to Separate Paragraphs in Adobe InDesign correctly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9j8qx7Nwnw
8. Pick a paragraph alignment option – flush left, rag right? Get better justified
type if you are using the justification option:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJoACD9qUeI OR improve your paragraph
rag (Google this). Paragraphs with a rag often benefit from additional open
space on the side where the rag is. When text is flush-left, rag-right, what
happens is that all the extra space sits on the side of the rig, between the last
letter and the edge of the textbox. When we use the justification option, what
happens is that all that space that’s between the last letter and the edge of the
textbox is evenly distributed between the words in each line. This can result in a
few problems, like uneven word spacing (H&J violations which you can check
in InDesign) and rivers.
9. Add weight to your text to improve the hierarchy.
10. Add Scale (use ratios for sizing or set the sizes expressively).
11. Check alignments (baseline to baseline? cap height to cap height? x-height to
x-height? Be sure to fix optical margins and hanging quotation marks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx6MTIY4r70.

VCD 479| 2024

Visual Arts Department, Stellenbosch University 3
 Check for: Bad breaks (widows and orphans):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiD5qQVxsRo. All typographic principles
touched on during this week will need to be incorporated.
12. Check & fix H&J violations. One way to do this is manually adjusting the
tracking. Try not to click and drag to highlight text. Rather, place your cursor
inside the word and click twice. Click 3 times to highlight the line, 4 times to
highlight the paragraph, and 5 times to highlight the all text.
13. Check overall visual interest, hierarchy, & structure

Copy to be Used:

• Your name (as heading).

• A personal quote. Remember to kern your heading & pull-quote (optical
vs metric kerning).
• Body copy. You can use dummy/placeholder text. Here’s how to Add
Placeholder Text in InDesign:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq0Onzv_CJA
• You can use your discretion with what text you use as the ‘crunchy’ bits
(Lupton 2024:160). This could be the date of publication, etc. Look at
examples and make it believable.

Place this text in a Word document first before placing it in – avoid copy and paste!
Because you can’t control the Import options this way and what formatting is carried
over.

Output:

• Print-ready file

VCD 479| 2024

Visual Arts Department, Stellenbosch University 4